They looked at each other.
For a brief, fragile instant, the devastation around them seemed to lose meaning. The ruined land, the torn sky, the watching gazes of distant monarchs, all of it faded into irrelevance as Belle Ardent and Black stood facing one another in silence.
No words were exchanged.
None were needed.
Something passed between them—an understanding forged from shared history, shared sin, shared power. A mutual recognition that what came next could no longer be contained within the fragile skin of the world.
As if guided by the same thought, the same breath, they spoke at the same time.
"Domain Expansion — Death Without Witness."
"Domain Expansion — Pain of Burned Memories."
Reality broke.
Not shattered, unmade.
The space around Belle folded inward, collapsing into a singularity of black. Sound vanished first. Then distance. Then meaning itself. The world she knew peeled away like rotting skin, replaced by something older, quieter, infinitely deeper.
